Jack London First Editions

• The Call of the Wild — 1903 · The Macmillan CompanyThe first printing's copyright page reads "Set up, electrotyped, and published July, 1903" and NOTHING FURTHER — the single most reliable point. Later printings add a reprint list beneath it reading "Reprinted July; August, September, December 1903; January, March 1904," so any copy carrying "Reprinted" lines is not a first printing. Bound in vertically ribbed green cloth pictorially stamped in red, white/black…. The US Macmillan, New York, July 1903 edition is the true first, confirming the census claim; the William Heinemann, London, 1903 edition is the first English edition, illustrated with 17 plates by Charles Edward Hooper, and is separately collected. REFUTED: a claim recycled across several online listings holds that the Heinemann preceded Macmillan by a month and that the American first was "issued without…. The dominant trap is the Grosset & Dunlap reprint, which carries the original 1903 Macmillan copyright yet is a reprint: check for the Grosset & Dunlap imprint at the spine foot and on the title page. The 1906 Grosset & Dunlap was printed from Macmillan's November 1906 sheets and is identified by "Macmillan's Standard Library" at the spine and at the head of the half-title; a 1915 Grosset & Dunlap printing states….
• The Sea-Wolf — 1904 · The Macmillan Company, New YorkThe true first was published by The Macmillan Company, New York, in October 1904 (BAL 11882); the copyright page carries 1903 and 1904 copyrights (the 1903 date from the Century magazine serialization) and "Published October, 1904." It is bound in blue cloth with top edge gilt, the front cover stamped in white lettering with an illustration in dark blue, white and red, and contains a frontispiece plus five…. US Macmillan (New York) October 1904 is the true first; the UK Heinemann edition also appeared in 1904 but follows the American issue. Collectors pursue the US Macmillan gilt-spine first state. Later Grosset & Dunlap and Regent/reprint issues lack the Macmillan imprint and the Aylward plate suite; no period book-club edition bears on the 1904 first.
• White Fang — 1906 · The Macmillan Company, New YorkThe true trade first was published by The Macmillan Company, New York, in October 1906, with the copyright page reading "Published October, 1906" (a tiny 1905 printing exists "for copyright purposes only" and is not the trade issue). It is bound in grey-green cloth with the title stamped in white and a small illustration stamped in black and white on the front cover, and is complete with eight full-page color…. US Macmillan (New York) October 1906 is the true first; the UK Methuen edition followed in 1907. US precedence is standard and not in dispute; the US Macmillan issue is the collected first. Later Grosset & Dunlap and similar reprints omit the Macmillan imprint and typically drop the Bull color-plate suite; period book-club issues are not a factor for a 1906 title.
• The Iron Heel — 1908 · The Macmillan CompanyThe copyright page of the first printing reads 'Copyright, 1907, By Jack London.' above the line 'Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1908.', with the Norwood Press imprint below it (J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.); this was confirmed against a scan of a 1908 Macmillan copy. Later Macmillan impressions retain that statement and add 'Reprinted' lines with dates beneath…. US first, as the census claims: The Macmillan Company, New York, published February 1908, is the true first. Everett & Co., London, 1908, is the first English edition and is collected separately as a scarce edition in its own right; the sources consulted give it no month and none place it ahead of the February Macmillan, so the Macmillan holds precedence on the available evidence. Both are collected — name…. Reprint tells sit on the copyright page: later Macmillan impressions keep 'Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1908.' and add dated 'Reprinted' lines beneath it, so read the full block rather than stopping at the February line — this is the single most common way a later impression is mistaken for the first. The 1917 Macmillan reissue is a separate edition. No book-club issue of the 1908 Macmillan is….
• Martin Eden — 1909 · The Macmillan CompanyThe first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement 'Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1909,' with no subsequent-printing statement beneath it — this is the standard Macmillan (US) formula of the period and is the decisive point. Collation is [vi], 411 pp., followed by ten pages of publisher's advertisements at the rear; the ads must be present. The binding is publisher's blue cloth,…. US Macmillan (New York), September 1909, is the true first — this is not in doubt and is corroborated across dealer and bibliographic sources. The census claim of a Heinemann (London) 1910 British edition could NOT be independently confirmed: no dealer listing, bibliography, or catalogue record consulted dates a Heinemann Martin Eden to 1910, though Heinemann does appear among the title's publishers and was…. No contemporaneous book-club issue is documented — the title predates the modern American book clubs (Book-of-the-Month Club began in 1926). The practical traps are later Macmillan printings and reprint-house editions: any copyright page carrying a printing statement beneath the 'Published September, 1909' line is a later printing, and Grosset & Dunlap and similar reprint editions retain the 1909 date on the….

More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Jack Vance, Jack Williamson, Jamaica Kincaid, James Agee, James Baldwin, James Beard.

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